why you should never buy Samsung appliances but should always shop at Lowe's

99% of you won't care about this and I'm fine with that. I just wanted to get this out on the internet so Samsung would know that I was not screwing around when I said I would tell everyone I could how poorly they treat customers. This is not humorous like dooce's similar post because I am not ready to find the humor in the situation. I'm sure soon I'll look back on this and laugh but right now I'm leaning more towards the stabby end of the emotional spectrum.

By now I'm sure everyone knows that dooce had washing machine issues and was able to twitter her way to a fixed machine. Well, on the same day that she took to twitter my eight month old fridge died. But because I don't have over one million twitter followers and I'm not a New York Times bestselling author Samsung basically told me to take my broken fridge and blow it out my ass. Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself.

On Tuesday I called Samsung to let them know that my fridge, which is still very much under warranty, was not maintaining a cool temperature. They arranged for a repairman to come out on Wednesday and I thought all was right with the world. Wednesday came and the repairman arrived, looked the fridge over and declared that the inverter was broken and the whole thing needed to be unplugged. He gave an estimate of Monday for repair. I promptly yelled a little bit upon hearing this, because Monday was unacceptable, there was no way I could function without a fridge for that long. The repairman, scared for his life and wanting to appease the hormonal crazy lady, said he could get the part and install it on Thursday. He swore the things in my freezer would be fine overnight and I tried my best to believe him.

Thursday morning arrived and the repairman was back at our house, inverter in hand. But upon installing it he found that it did not work. And he didn't know when he could get a new one. And now everything in the freezer was really doomed. And please crazy lady don't kill me. I was left feeling really helpless, what with more melting food than I could cram into my garbage can and the idea that no one knew when my fridge would be working again. So I followed in dooce's footsteps and took to twitter. Turns out Samsung wanted to prove that they know how to provide good customer service, unlike that evil Maytag that Dooce was dealing with and they responded to my tweet right away. Unfortunately all they could do was give me information I already had, so it was back to Samsung's customer service number for me.

The multiple calls to Samsung's customer service department started rationally, I calmly explained to the customer service rep that with a two week old, not having a fridge was not an option. I explained that we were being forced to go out to eat three meals a day and I had no way to store breastmilk. I explained that going out to eat that much costs a crapload of money and sucks up a lot of energy that I just don't have right now. But upon being told that all they could offer me was $200 to cover the cost of the food spoiled, I lost it and the tears started. I asked if they could express ship the needed part and was told no. I asked if there was anything else they could do and again was told no. At this point I was feeling rather defeated and was also crying into the phone. I had no choice but to give up for the day.

Friday morning brought a renewed desire to get the situation fixed, mostly because I had finally received confirmation that the inverter would be arrive on Thursday, as in six days later. And keep in mind that the first inverter didn't fix the problem and there was no promise the new one would either. Also, I have family and friends arriving on Thursday so not having a fridge was absolutely not an option. So back to Samsung's customer service line I went, but this time I got someone that understood why I was upset and, while she couldn't help me, she was able to pass me through to the highest level of customer service representatives. I was told that these reps are able to make decisions based on individual cases and she really thought they would be able to offer me an acceptable solution. She was wrong.

The rep that I was passed through to was the rudest, most uncaring and unhelpful customer service person I have ever dealt with. She barely listened to the situation before declaring there was nothing she or Samsung could do. When I asked if the part could be found locally instead of waiting for it to ship from New Jersey, she said "Probably but we can't help you locate it." I asked if we could put a plan B in place on the off chance that the new inverter arrived and did not work. This way I wouldn't have to wait another week for Samsung to figure something out, we would know exactly what we were going to do. She said no. I asked for a new fridge. She almost laughed at me. At this point I really lost it, which I think is totally understandable. I called the situation bullshit. I called my fridge a $2300 pile of crap. I told her I would badmouth Samsung to every person that I could and I would never recommend a Samsung appliance to another person. And then jparks came and took the phone away from me because I was not helping the situation.

At this point jparks was the more rational out of the two of us and took over explaining the situation and again asked for a new fridge. She gave him the same answers she gave me but with a little more explanation. Turns out Samsung's computer system is down until Tuesday and they are ceasing to function as a company until then. But she also pointed out that even once the system is back up there is nothing they can do to fix our situation. At this point even jparks was at wit's end and saw that the situation was not going to get better any time soon, so he gave up.

Now remember by Friday I had been without a fridge for three days and by Samsung's estimate I would be without it for another six days. (at one point I was told the part was on back order and no one knew when it would be available again) I had exhausted myself trying to get any kind of help or compassion from Samsung so I decided to try something that seemed like a long shot. A really really long shot. I called Lowe's customer care line because that's who we bought the fridge from and I was really desperate. The customer service rep listened to my story and then put me on hold. I thought for sure she would come back to the line and tell me there was nothing they could do, I mean that would be par for the course. But! BUT! She came back and connected me to my local Lowe's where the amazing manager informed me they would be delivering a new fridge THE NEXT MORNING.

After three days of the worst customer service from Samsung, to have Lowe's step up the plate with one five minute phone call blew me away. Keep in mind that Lowe's owed me nothing because the fridge was covered under Samsung's warranty. Lowe's could have told me there was nothing they could do and I would have totally understood, but they didn't. Their customer service has officially blown me away and in the future I will purchase all my appliances from Lowe's, although none of those appliances will be Samsung.

As I type this, Lowe's delivery men are in my kitchen installing the new fridge. (also, Samsung discontinued my fridge. Lowe's only had the upgraded, more expensive one in stock and that's what they sent me. Because they are not jerks) I can not stress enough that if you are interested in new appliances you should buy them through Lowe's and stay far away from Samsung. I repeat, for the sake of this popping up in Google searches, do not buy Samsung appliances. The experience I had with their customer service department is unacceptable and I would not wish that on anyone else. It's great that Maytag stepped up to the plate for dooce and her washing machine, but that's the kind of customer service we all deserve, even if we don't have one million twitter followers. I may not be famous, but I deserve the same level of care as someone that is. The $2300 that I spend on my fridge is not somehow magically less than the $2300 a celebrity would spend.

Samsung, you have screwed up and it is unacceptable. I hope you learn from this that all customers matter, all phone calls to your customer service line should be met with a caring representative who actually has the power or know how to fix the situation, and you should believe an angry customer when they say they will tell everyone they know how crappy your service is.

small victories

Today was a good day, yesterday was not. Today jparks and I took Truman to Target and Whole Foods and not only did we shop, but we actually managed to eat a meal while out. I know this seems like nothing special but considering yesterday I spent most of the day either in tears or on the verge of tears, I'll take any small victory that I can.

I knew bringing home a newborn would be difficult, but holy crap it's really a challenge. My hormones are all over the place, I'm sleep deprived, and while Truman is cute, that kid has got some lungs on him. We're working on getting him to sleep in his crib, but right now his limit there seems to be ten minutes. And did you know that it's possible to go through three diapers in five minutes? And that one of those diapers will get used before you can even fasten its tabs?

But it's not all bad. I'm fairly certain I can fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans. (only fairly certain because all my jeans died holey deaths around the start of my second trimester) A friend gave me a zappos gift card and whenever I feel completely overwhelmed, I zone out for a few minutes while staring at shoes. I'm currently thinking these might be nice to push a stroller in. Or these. Don't judge me, I love heels and don't plan on stopping loving them just because I may have to visit playgrounds frequently.

Here's where I could say something profound about maintaining my personal identity while becoming a mother, but I won't because that's not really my thing. All I ask is that you bear with me through these first few weeks of all Truman, all the time and things will eventually begin to normalize around here. I'll figure out how to easily leave the house to do things again. I'll go back to whining about things I want, but can't have. At some point soon jparks is bound to squarely plant his foot in his mouth and I'll be there to blog about it. Just hang tight until I gather enough sleep to reach those milestones and you'll be greatly rewarded. Until then, have I mentioned that child rearing is hard? Or that Truman is cute?

truman oliver parks

Hey, guess what! I survived labor and it only took me a week of recovery to have the energy to make a blog post announcing that Truman Oliver Parks has arrived.







He was born on August 14th at 10:59pm, weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. My labor was 19 painful hours, jparks' arm was almost broken once, along with a finger, I totally confused an anesthesiologist, and had a breakdown 15 hours in when I decided that I was done and was walking out the hospital. Ah, good times.

induction! finally!

Greetings from Good Sam Hospital! We checked in this evening for an induction because this kid doesn't seem to want to take leave on his own. I mean, come on kid, we couldn't find a brighter flashlight, why would you not move towards it?

So we're here, we've been here for four and a half hours, jparks has almost broken some probably very expensive medical equipment, and I've been given a drug to start labor but we won't have any changes for at least a few more hours. In fact, I don't suspect there will be anything interesting going on in my uterus until midmorning on Friday.

And that's all I've got for now. Thank you to everyone that sent well wishes my way over on twitter but really you might all want to pray for jparks since I'm not sure how well he'll fare once the contractions start. I might not be at my pre-pregnancy strength but I'm fairly certain I can deal some serious damage to him. Thank goodness I found where they keep the smelling salts in my delivery room. Actually they're in a drawer with some medical tape, so maybe I'll grab both and tape the salts to his face. That way when I punch, not only will I take him out, but I'll open the salts at the same time and he'll be back on his feet almost instantly. I don't want to toot my own horn, but crap, this plan is brilliant.

the girl that cried wolf

Friday, the day my OB suggested inducing, has come and gone and I'm still knocked up. Sunday, my due date, has come and gone and I am still knocked up. Folks, this is getting old really quickly.

I honestly don't want to chat your ear off about still being pregnant but every thought I have lately goes something like this "Dammit kid, OOOOUUUUTTTT" or "I'm going to be pregnant forever. It could happen, I read about it on the internet." And speaking of the internet, one of my new hobbies is to research ways to induce labor online. I've found plenty of the old wives' tales; spicy foods, sex, and walking, but so far my favorite suggestion is to take a small flashlight, turn it on, and shove it into your vagina. Why? Because babies like to move towards light. Yes, according to the internet you can lure a baby out of your womb by making him think God is calling him towards a holy white light. How pissed would that kid be when he realizes instead of heaven, he's ended up in a hospital room with an idiot mother that shoved a flashlight into her vagina?

Of course, I've asked jparks to run to Sears and get one of those multi million candlepower spotlights. It's a bit big to shove up there, but when we're back at the OB's in a few hours and we're in the room waiting for him I'll have jparks grab a speculum and give the kid a good shining. It might be a stupid idea, but I read it on the internet so it must work. Now if only jparks still had long hair we could dress him up like Jesus so the kid wouldn't be too disappointed upon being born.

this post might use up my monthly ration of exclamation points and caps lock

The end is nigh! My due date is Sunday! Start boiling some water and ripping sheets because I plan on birthing a baby soon! Someone bring me a leather strap to bite down on! (For the record I am going to attempt a natural birth. It's okay to laugh at me, I know it's insane. But I also know that the drugs! They will be right there! Stick them in my spine now! Either way, natural or drugged out of my freaking mind, as long as the kid takes his leave of me I'll be happy.)

Jparks and I went to the OB yesterday and it seems there are lots of things going on with this pregnancy and none of them have anything to do with my body being ready to shoot this kid out. My cervix is still shut up tight yet my blood pressure just keeps right on rising. I had some blood work run and while we wait for the results I'm on bed rest. Doesn't bed rest sound like the best thing ever? In theory I suppose it is, in real life, not so much. Now that I'm stuck on the couch I see that there is so much to do, like the dishes. Who knew you could actually want to do the dishes? Or the ironing. The wrinkled clothes are calling my name.

The bed rest is to help keep my blood pressure low and ward off preeclampsia. Should my blood work come back positive for signs of preeclampsia then I'll be facing an induction on Friday. If it comes back normal and the bed rest does its job, then I can probably escape the induction. Don't get me wrong, I really want this kid out but I would ideally like to avoid an induction since that raises my risk of having a c-section. I've watched a midget get a c-section on the Discovery Channel and it was not pretty. I would like to avoid having my intestines removed from my torso and then shoved back in if possible.

So that's the latest news on the condition of me and my uterus. I wish there was more to tell but my stubborn cervix hasn't received the memo from the rest of my body that this kid needs to get out. OUTOUTOUT. I swear if I have to unhook a foot from a rib one more time I might just lose my shit. And it won't be the kid that suffers my wrath, it'll be jparks because this is all his fault.